For the seventh consecutive year, SIPRI’s data on military expenditure worldwide shows ‘not much change’ in the world total – but many of the signs point to a renewed surge in years to come. Their fact sheet reviews some of the key trends in the data.

To recap: Facebook collects data on its users. Lots and lots of data. Likes, shares, what we post about, who our friends are, those personal details we choose to share, etc. etc. It uses this data to micro-target […]

The ongoing war in Yemen is the source of one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world today, with millions of Yemenis facing an imminent threat of famine, in addition to the 10,000 (as of January 2017) who have been directly killed by the fighting. All sides have committed major abuses of international humanitarian law, including indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. The war seems to be at a stalemate, and is becoming even more complex with recent fighting in Aden between UAE-backed southern separatists, and formerly-allied Saudi-backed forces loyal to the internationally-recognized ‘government’ (if Yemen can be said to possess such a thing) of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

In part I of this article, I discussed some of the key themes and tendencies of President Trump’s foreign and security policies, and some key global issues where he has made a significant policy impact. In part II, I consider a number of the regional conflicts where Trump’s influence has made itself known.

I was supposed to be giving a presentation on this subject as part of a panel organized by Economists for Peace and Security at the American Economic Association conference in Philadelphia last Saturday. Winter Storm Grayson put paid to that plan, so instead I thought I’d write about it here.

This month, the Swedish Parliament is expected to vote on a government proposal to strengthen Swedish arms export controls, among other things by adding a “democracy criterion,” that will require a recipient state’s democratic status to be taken into […]